this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2025
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Is discovery a dumpster fire? I mean sure it could be better but I dont think its a dumpster fire. It seems there are constantly new small team indie games doing wild numbers on the platform. If discovery was truely bad we would be seeing the charts dominated by big studios.
The regular Next Fests have probably been the single best thing for game discovery I've found in s long time. Nothing beats an actual hands-on demo for deciding if I'll wishlist a game.
I guess he talking about the search system, which is a dumpster fire relative to other Steam features.
Are we using the same product? There's a vast array of quality tags that seem to genuinely work to find stuff?
You can't filter using more than one tag as an "and" filter, only "or". That's pretty basic for a filter feature, isn't it? It's just surprising given how well implemented other Steam features had been in my experience.
He wasnt talking about search it was about algorithmic recommendation.
But you can filter by multiple tags. When you click search select the advanced search at the bottom of the dropdown. It does all the things you mention and far more
Did I really missed such a feature? I'll try it out later.
Mr biggest problem with tags is that it's user curated and you can recommend an unlimited number of them.
Just because a game has a few funny moments, doesn't mean it gets the comedy tag. Just because it has a brief driving sequence doesn't mean it gets the racing tag. Just because there's some reading involved doesn't mean you get the visual novel tag.
It's getting to the point I feel like there's a conspiracy where there's teams of people intentionally sabotaging the tag system and teams trying to counter it, all so they can control views and sales. It's really noticeable when a publisher stops marketing and moves to another release.
I don't think you can create new tags can you ? At least I have not seen a place to do that.
But I do also think that there could be more specific tags.
And yeah, being able to AND / OR would be hella good.
However, I would not describe it as a dumpster fire, it's pretty good all things considered.
You can't create new ones afaik, but you can add and report tags. If enough users do either and it meets the threshold it will be added/removed. The order tags appear is also relevant, if the first tag is FPS then it's the most voted tag. I'm sure devs/publishers can set initial tags but after that it's users that maintain them.
It is a good idea to keep this simple in theory, but it also is exploitable. Especially since you can't search by tags set by users vs devs/publishers. Or the first 4-5 tags. I see a lot go into safeguarding reviews, but very little in tag abuse. There's cheep no effort games with a crazy number of tags - most people can identify trash, but if it can be abused, then what about other legitimate games?
Steam also categorizes tags in 4 types: Genres, Visual, Theme, and Features. It would be nice to search, say, games that are primarily one genre. When I search for JRPG, I don't want a City Builder that has JRPGish elements, but I'd be ok with a JRPG with City Builderish elements. You could really narrow down what you want if you used some advanced logic. But that's not simple, so I can see why they don't, I just wish I could if I wanted to.
But I'd have to disagree, if it's open to abuse, then it is a dumpster fire. The thing is that the alternative is....well they aren't doing it. It's one of the few things I think, if a competitor focused on and got right, would really hurt steam. But no one seems interested in doing that, so for now, steam is all we got.
I'm the opposite, I find user assigned tags to be far more accurate. Otherwise every game would be put into the most generic categories. From my experience the tags are generally accurate.
Then the competition should put in the work.
That's kinda his point.
The competition is at work, but too many fanboys blindly bashing on anything that isn't Steam is making it very hard for them.
Which competition are you referring to?
Steam took years and years earning customers trust slowly but surely. Why would we greet Epic, EA, Ubisoft, Blizzard with anything other than suspicion?
Looking at how other tech areas have all consolidated into monopolies or oligopolies, valve is the best case scenario for PC gaming.
Imagine anyone else being in control. Activision? EA? Ubisoft? The gaming industry is not immune from disgusting money hungry corporations stepping on the users to squeeze out every little penny they can. Valve has never done this and has kept others in check for the longest time. The day we lose the current version of Valve will be disastrous for the industry, I'm pretty sure.
I think you might reconsider what qualifies as "best case scenario" if you end that statement with "when this thing goes, it's taking the industry with it". Like, best out of a bad bunch, for sure, but the best possible outcome?
My personal opinion is that better than this in a money driven capitalistic economy is not possible. The pressures to keep growing and to make more are too great and most companies will do anything to make line go up. Valve has been very steady and metered in their ways over the years compared to any other company I am aware of.
If we change the external pressures, as in change our entire economic model, then sure, better can be had, I assume for all companies everywhere not just valve.
This is a bot ^^
Agreed. I’d add the predatory lootbox/gambling in stuff like counterstrike.
You're saying a lot of words as fact for what is an opinion.
Watch your determinism.